The Mark of Athena

**The Mark of Athena**
Author	Rick Riordan
Illustrator	John Rocco
Language	English
Series	The Heroes of Olympus (Book 3)
Genre	Fantasy, Greek and Roman mythology, Young adult, Romantic
Publisher	Disney-Hyperion
Publication date	October 2, 2012 (hardcover, audiobook CD, Kindle/Nook eBook)
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (hardback, audiobook CD, E-book)
Pages	580 (Hardcover)
ISBN	978-1423140603
Preceded by	The Son of Neptune
Followed by	The House of Hades

The Mark of Athena is the third installment of The Heroes of Olympus series written by Rick Riordan. It was released on October 2, 2012. The book takes place where The Son of Neptune left off. The novel follows the alternating third-person narrative style of the previous two books, with narration cycling between the fictional Greek Demigods Annabeth Chase, Leo Valdez, Piper McLean, and Percy Jackson.

Development and Promotion

Rick Riordan had been working on The Mark of Athena since the completion of The Son of Neptune.

During his tour to promote the last of The Kane Chronicles books, titled The Serpent's Shadow, Rick read part of the first chapter of The Mark of Athena. There, it was revealed that Annabeth Chase is one of the narrators. The cover and full first chapter were released on June 1st on the Disney Heroes of Olympus website.

On September 27th, Rick Riordan confirmed that there would be first US printing of 3.5 million copies. The book was released on October 2, 2012. The next book in the series will be "The House of Hades."

Plot

Prophecy

A prophecy by Ella the Harpy, while with Percy, Hazel, and Frank, refers to this as well. Translated from Latin to English it says:

Wisdom's daughter walks alone,

The Mark of Athena burns through Rome,
Twins snuff out the angel's breath,
Who holds the key to endless death.
Giants' bane stands gold and pale,

Won through pain from a woven jail.

Plot summary

While getting ready to land at Camp Jupiter, Annabeth Chase prepares by making sure the various back-up plans are ready in case something goes wrong. While Leo Valdez was flying the Argo II, Annabeth tried to keep Gleeson Hedge from attacking the first thing he saw by making him watch reruns of mixed martial arts championships in his cabin. Jason Grace prepared by putting on a purple toga over his orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and Piper McLean practiced her lines for when they landed. As Annabeth watched Jason, she wondered if this could all be a trap as she was still a bit untrusting of Jason as he seemed to be too perfect. She also was reminded of how much she missed Percy Jackson every time she looked at him.

Annabeth also mentions feeling a mysterious chill, as if "an evil snowman had crept up behind her and was peering over her neck." Annabeth wished she could pray to her mother, but this would be impossible as Athena had appeared to her about a month ago, an encounter Annabeth described as very horrible. Athena also gave Annabeth the worst present of her life during this meeting. Soon, the horns from Camp Jupiter sounded below as the campers spotted the Argo II.

Annabeth Chase is amazed at the size of Camp Jupiter, which is twice the size of Camp Half Blood, and recognizes the landmarks that Jason has told her about. She sees evidence of the Romans' recent battle, including the cracked dome of the Senate House.

An explosion nearly knocks Annabeth overboard, and Terminus, the Roman god of boundaries, appears on the Argo II. He shrieks that he will not allow weapons inside the Pomerian Line, and grumbles at Jason for consorting with the enemies of Rome, referring to the Greek demigods. Piper tries to charmspeak Terminus, but he "slaps" her dagger out of her hand for her impertinence. Terminus announces that if he was at his full strength, he would have already blasted the "flying monstrosity" out of the sky, to which Leo takes offense to. Annabeth tries to regain control of the situation and calm everyone down by introducing herself to Terminus, but he finds Annabeth being the daughter of Athena, the Greek form of Minerva, to be "scandalous." However, before Annabeth can question Terminus on what he means, Jason interrupts and asks for permission to land inside the Pomerian Line.

Annabeth spots Percy walking with Frank Zhang and Hazel Levesque as if they were best friends, and Annabeth knew she had to reach him, as she was so close. She also recognizes that he is now Praetor, as he is wearing a purple cape just like Jason's.

Annabeth orders Leo to stop the ship, as she asks Terminus whether there is a rule against the ship hovering over New Rome, to which Terminus says there isn't. Annabeth then tells Terminus that they will keep the Argo II up in the air over New Rome and use a rope ladder to reach the forum. She also promised Terminus that all their weapons will stay on the ship, as long as the legion reinforcements will honor the same rules, which Terminus agrees to as he can't tolerate those that break the rules.

Annabeth finally reunites with Percy and kisses him. She mentions that his lips were salty. She then judo-flips Percy against the ground and makes him swear that he'll never leave her again, to which Percy says yes, and, "I missed you, too."

Later, Annabeth and Reyna walk and talk on a hill when the Argo II starts firing on them. They rush back to find that Percy, Jason, Piper, Frank and Hazel are all being attacked by angry Romans because the Argo II is firing on New Rome.

As the Greek and Roman demigods are fighting each other, Percy, Annabeth, Frank, Leo, Piper, Hazel and Jason decide escape from the scene in Argo II. The Argo II is severely damaged and Jason suffers a head injury. Leo is confronted by Annabeth, Frank & Percy and he admits firing at the Romans. He however mentioned that he was forced to do so by an invisible force. Leo takes the ship to Great Salt Lake in Utah to find material required to repair the ship.

Hazel and Leo then heads out to find Celestial Bronze needed for the repairs. Along the way, they find Nemesis surrounded by many fortune cookies, which she was opening to figure out the contents, before deciding to keep it in her basket or to toss it away. Nemesis gives Leo a cookie, which he kept in his tool belt, and Nemesis pointed out that someone is waiting for them before she leaves the scene. Hazel and Leo then finds Echo and Narcissus. The Celestial Bronze turns out to be a "mirror" which Narcissus is using to see his own reflection. After managing to trick Narcissus, Hazel and Leo escaped back to the ship with the help of Arion, Hazel's horse, and Echo, who remained behind to try to save Narcissus again, after having failed in her previous life time.

Along the way, they stop in Kansas, owing to a vision Piper had in her dagger. They discover Bacchus, the Roman counterpart to Mr. D. It turns out to be a trap and Gaea forces Percy and Jason to fight each other. Their eyes turn into a gold hue, and with Percy on Blackjack and Jason on Tempest, both heroes attack each other. Piper manages to stop them from killing each other, as she realises that they are possessed by eidolons. With both Percy and Jason knocked out, Piper had Blackjack carry them back to the ship. It is then conferred that the 'chills' that Annabeth and Leo had earlier felt were due to the effects of eidolons. After a discussion, it is discovered that three eidolens are 'residing' in Percy, Jason and Leo. Piper manages to send the eidolons away. Before they leave, Piper makes them swear on the River Styx that they will never come back to the ship or inhabit any of its crew.

The seven then headed to Atlanta. On the way there, Percy has a dream of the twins, Ephialtes and Otis. He realises that the giants had prepared traps for the demigods and the item they desired was actually a jar. Trapped in the jar is Nico di Angelo, who is surviving on Pomegranate seeds. These seeds were taken from Persephone's garden, and one per day, puts the user in a death trance. Nico was consuming almost no air, the reason why he can survive in the jar of poisonous fumes. This fulfils Ella's prophecy "Twins snuff out the angel's breath", the angel referring to Nico di Angelo, where Angelo is Italian for Angel. They have only 5 days to rescue him, and that is by July 1st, and also the day when Rome falls.

Annabeth wakes Percy and takes him to her favorite part of the ship, so that he could finally be able to spend time with her after 8 months. She kisses him and tells him how much she missed him. Percy tells her about his dream about Ephialtes and Otis. She asks him to hold her for a while, and the warmth of Annabeth makes him fall asleep.

He is found the next day by Frank, who tries not to look very awkward. Coach Hedge is infuriated, and Hazel looks scandalized and keeps fanning her face with her hand. Percy, Frank and Coach Hedge then head out to search for Phorcys. As Keto and Coach Hedge went for a tour of the aquarium, both Percy and Frank are caught by Phorcys, who had earlier let slip the location of the map they were looking for. With the efforts of Coach Hedge who discovers them in an aquarium, the trio managed to escape.

Their next stop is Charleston. Annabeth, Piper and Hazel seeks out the apparition that Jason and Reyna had encountered years ago. The apparition turned out to be Aphrodite/Venus. The goddess claims that, while the other gods suffer crippiling headaches due to their Greek and Roman sides conflicting, she does not suffer this afflection, for love is the same be it Greek or Roman. After a 'tea party', Annabeth searches for the map as her friends battled against the Romans at Fort Sumpter. After a fearful encounter of spiders, which hinted further at the final destination of the trail that the Mark of Athena leads, Annabeth found the map.

After escaping from the Romans, the ship sails through the Atlantic. During this time, Hazel decides to show Leo a vision from her past, in hopes to understand each other better. A scene from Hazel's school days were shown, where Sammy Valdez saved her from a bully and acquired a diamond from her. Despite Hazel's plea, Sammy decided to keep the diamond and promised her that he would never sell it. The scene changes quickly, causing Hazel to be in disbelief as it did not belong to any of her visions. It is, however, a scene where the timelines of Hazel, Leo and Sammy crossed. Sammy turned out to be Leo's great-grandfather. In the vision, as Sammy was cuddling a baby Leo, Sammy started to ramble what appeared to be nonsense. However, it was implied that Sammy could have been a demigod as well, for he had received a vision from Hera. The vision told Sammy that Hazel's trouble would not have been during his lifetime. As Leo was the first male heir to appear in generations, Sammy hoped that Leo would be his double, and he implored that if Leo was to meet Hazel, Leo would have to apologize to Hazel on his behalf. "Tell her hello for me," Sammy said to baby Leo. When Hazel died, though Sammy had thought that she had simply disappeared, Sammy sold the diamond. Sammy then believed that he was cursed, for he never saw Hazel again. As both Hazel and Leo awaken from their sharing, Hazel is crying, and Leo says, "Hello, Hazel Levesque," in a gravely voice. Then a monster attacks the ship.

Frank is knocked overboard while Leo and Hazel fall into the ocean after being caught by the monster. They are then saved by Chiron's brothers, Aphros and Bythos who are actually Ichthyocentaurs; creatures with a humanoid upper body, the torso and legs of a horse and the tail of a fish. After they release the trio back to the ship, they send a force to deal with Phorcys and Keto in a bid to release all the marine creatures been held captive.

The voyage continues to Rome, passing through the entrance to the Mediterranean, where they are tested by Hercules, who is now a god. Piper manages to cut of the remaining horn of Achelous, an old river god, and it turns into a cornucopia. Instead of handing the cornucopia to Hercules, as per Hercules's request/demand, they trick the god and escape. Along the way, they are boarded by pirates led by the son of Medusa. They manage to escape, and make an offering to Bacchus.

Once in Rome, Annabeth and Percy have lunch together, and then Annabeth kisses Percy goodbye and leaves with Rhea Silvia, an escort, to continue following The Mark of Athena- part of a separate quest set by her mother. Percy, Piper and Jason are almost drowned by vengeful water nymphs, but survive, and manage to rescue Nico Di Angelo. While battling giant, Bacchus appears and aids them owing to the offering made to him.

After retrieving the Athena Parthenos, the floor beings to crack. Annabeth begins to slide toward the pit and falls, but Percy catches her and comforts her. He congratulates her for finding the statue. However, Arachne uses a line of webbing, still attached to Annabeth's ankle, to pull her into the pit. Percy is only barely able to catch her, holding her with one hand, with the other hand on a ledge. Annabeth hears Arachne's voice in her mind, saying that if she is to go to Tartarus, so will Annabeth. Turning to Nico, Percy asks Nico to lead the others to the Doors of Death. Unable to hold on any longer, Percy promises Annabeth that he will never be separated from her again and releases his grip on the ledge. Holding hands, they fall into Tartarus. Back on the Argo II, the remaining six demigods agree to head to Greece to the House of Hades (the location of the doors of death in the mortal world) and shut them from this side, while Percy and Annabeth travel through Tartarus to reach the other side of the Doors there. Leo tells Festus to prepare the ship to set sail for their friends.

Major Characters

Release

The Mark of Athena was published on October 2nd. It is available on eBook and audiobook, apart from the actual book.

Sequel

The sequel to The Mark of Athena has been confirmed to be called The House of Hades. So far not much is known about the 4th book in the Heroes of Olympus series except that it will be released in the fall of 2013.

References